Oversight Hearings on Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action. Part 1. Hearings before the Subcommittee on Employment Opportunities of the Committee on Education and Labor. House of Representatives, Ninety-Seventh Congress, First Session (July 15, September 23-24, and October 7, 1981).

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. House Committee on Education and Labor.

This document is a transcript of Congressional hearings on equal employment opportunity and affirmative action held in the summer and fall of 1981. Some of those who testified at the hearing included a professor of economics, a representative of the Rockefeller Foundation, directors of women's groups, directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Urban League, officials of the U.S. Department of Labor, an assistant attorney general for civil rights, congresswomen, and a representative of Mexican American groups. In addition, prepared statements and other materials were given by these persons and others. The focus of the hearing was on the apparent intent of the Reagan administration to curtail severely the Federal Government's involvement in the enforcement of equal employment opportunity laws. It was also concerned with the administration's apparent inclination to abandon its heretofore substantial use of affirmative action as a tool by which to redress and hopefully eradicate the effects of past discrimination practiced against minorities and women. Witnesses traced the origins and background of discrimination against minorities and women, noted their still unequal share of better jobs, and said that the administration's policy of backing off on enforcement of affirmative action would be unfair to women and minorities. They pushed for the continuing efforts of government to create equal opportunity regulations and enforce those laws. (KC)